Marauders
by crescentdarnel
Summary: James Potter tries to navigate himself and his friends in a country at war. But when Lily, a girl with no memory who has decided to hate him and Harry, an orphaned baby whom everyone mistakes as his become a part of his life, it changes. To protect the ones he loves he has to figure out whom he loves.
1. Chapter 1

_Author's Note: I won't give you any of this first story crap. No, I have never published anything else on this site, but I have written stories before. No need to be gentle. If you want to review, please be honest. And please review._

 _And please enjoy._

 _The characters belong to J.K. Rowling and, whatever I say, it's good they do. I would have messed up so bad if I owned them._

The woods were empty.

At least they looked empty. From experience James knew that they were never empty. Peasants and soldiers and beggars and thieves were always there, but it was incredible how empty they could feel at times, even with Sirius and Remus walking next to him at all times.

He shifted his pack. It was surprisingly heavy, although all it contained was his life, and he had never had much of that.

They didn't have much luck today. It was nightfall and they had yet to find a place to stay, even if it was in the woods. He shuddered. Winter was approaching, even though Summer hadn't been over for pretty long. Winter was tough, tougher than anything here, and Summer wasn't much better. The cold stayed with you wherever you went.

He could hear the horses on a path not quite far from here. Sometimes he thought life must be better for travellers with horses, other times he thought it was silly. Horses attracted thieves and...well. Other not so nice people.

He looked at Sirius, who was smiling at him, bright as ever. James had no idea how he did it, and Remus obviously neither, but sometimes it was uplifting that at least one of them was in a good mood.

James would have been fine with spending the night in the woods, but with the government refusing to see that...bad people existed, it was becoming more and more dangerous. One of them not only had to patrol while the others slept, he also had to be on constant alert. Before, their guard just fell asleep somewhere in between and it was fine.

All of them knew these woods. They stretched along the entire land, which they had walked several times over the last few years.

Then they saw it.

James liked to think he saw things before the others did. He probably didn't, but it meant he was the one to protect the others. He didn't know if the others thought the same way.

Before them, down the hill they had just walked up, the whole floor was covered in blood.

Several horses had been slaughtered. They probably oozed the most blood. But there were several humans there, too.

"Fifteen," Remus said. James nodded.

The sight of seeing a group robbed and killed had become a normal, almost everyday occurrence. It was still terrible, but just about like seeing the starving children on the way when they passed through a city or village. It was terrible, but they were used to it.

James wondered if the government felt the same, which was why they weren't doing anything.

There were not as many children as he'd expected. _They_ usually preferred groups including children, because they were more vulnerable. This time, there was only one, and he wasn't even sure if the stabbed fourteen-year-old boy counted as a real vulnerability. It was their style, though. The killings and the ripped clothes.

"Shall we see if there's something left?" Sirius asked. At least he was respectful enough not to make a joke about it. The first time they were forced to look through the bodies for anything worth anything, James felt like he was stealing from the poor to give to the rich. Now it had become way to normal.

He nodded. They divided the work and James bent down over the fourteen-year-old. Nothing, not even his clothes. Next.

Old lady. Everything taken, even parts of her ponytail. Who does that? Next.

Soldier, probably escorting them. Uniform ripped to pieces, covered in blood. Sword taken. Next.

Pretty red-head. Probably poor. Blouse torn and shredded, skirt soaked. No pack. Moving.

Wait. Moving?

James stared at the last body he was forced to inspect. The girl was groaning weakly in the back of her throat.

 _They_ never left anyone alive. Never.

He blinked. Sirius and Remus seemed to be through, James always took a little more time, trying to be respectful with the bodies.

The girl moaned and shifted. Maybe she was in pain. And she was alive.

Okay, what the hell was he going to do now?

"Prongs, I know pretty girls are great, but this one's dead. If she doesn't have anything, let's move."

Sirius was calling, even using their childhood nickname for him.

He could only blink.

Remus came over. James could feel that he desperately wanted to leave, too. Remus didn't deal too well with death.

"She's alive," he whispered when Remus had reached him. She was alive. How could that be? She must have wounds somewhere, deadly wounds.

"What?"

"She's alive, Moony." He looked up into Remus' disbelieving face. "I don't know how, but she is."

Remus carefully stepped over the soldier and leaned over the girl. He stretched his hand out and felt her pulse. Then he nodded.

"Her pulse is incredibly strong. Not dead, not even dying. I don't know how, but...God."

"What do we do now?"

"We take her with us, idiots. She can have our babies." Sirius had managed not only to turn up out of the blue, but turn the conversation into a joke. James glared at him, but was secretly impressed.

"What, Prongs? We can't just leave her here, and she has to be good for something."

James looked at Remus. Remus shrugged. He looked back at Sirius. Sirius grinned.

"We deserve a little fun from time to time."

"Alright," James said. "But you," he pointed at Sirius, "keep your hands off of her. You are also not allowed to help check her for wounds."

"Aww," Sirius said. "She hasn't even woken up and you're already calling dips on her. It's scary how fast you move."

James grumbled under his breath. Only Remus heard.


	2. Chapter 2

_Author's Note: This is the second chapter, because apparently someone reads this story. Well, thanks. I'll try to upload as regularly as possible._

 _Still not mine. I can only dream._

The fire was burning low. The girl had yet to wake up.

Remus had said that some people died of shock. It didn't even have to be the oh-my-god-I'm-dying shock, it could also be a oh-my-god-I-lived shock.

That was stupid, James concluded. She had made it this far. He'd be pissed off if he lived through the same and then just died of a stupid old shock.

Not that he was complaining about the fact that she might not wake up, no. Better for them. They'd bury her somewhere and get on with their life. The last thing they needed was someone else to worry about.

Maybe those were cruel thoughts, maybe they were just true. He knew it would have been better for his parents if he had never happened. Maybe she knew it was best not to wake up. The world she'd wake up to was mean and unfair.

He built the fire back up. Having one was both good and bad, it kept away animals and pocket thieves, but it attracted other...people. Monsters.

But with Winter approaching, they didn't really have a choice.

James shivered. He had wrapped his jacket around the girl because she wasn't dead yet and Remus as well as Sirius wouldn't wake up again if they fell asleep without one.

He had volunteered to be on first watch, and not because he wanted the girl to see him, her handsome savior, first. Just because.

Obviously Sirius had cackled like crazy with his lack of reasons.

He sighed again, mostly just because he had started to do it about as much as he breathed. There were too many things to worry about to not do it.

The girl's eyes twitched. He held his breath. It stopped. He sighed.

The moon had come out, though it wasn't up in the sky yet.

The girl's eyes twitched. And opened.

He blinked. She blinked back. Then she lunged away.

"Who are you?" She demanded. "What are you doing here? Where am I? Get off!"

He blinked again, and stretched out his hand to push her back down.

"Calm down," he said. Her panicked face transformed into a deep and angry frown.

"Don't tell me what to do! How dare you!"

For a second, he stilled. Enough time for her to slap him across the face, get up and start running into the woods.

"Hey!" he shouted. Fuck Sirius and Remus, he needed to get to that girl, at least to get back at her. His whole face was stinging.

"Hey!" he shouted again. "Stop!"

She was fast, like a frightened animal, but years of everyday walking gave him a definite advantage. He caught her only a few steps further, tearing her to the ground while landing on top of her.

"Hey," he said a little softer. "I don't want to hurt you, but you can't-" He stopped.

She had bit him.

That bitch had bit him into his arm, hard. He could feel the blood trickling down his arm.

"Get off me!" she screamed. "I don't care who you are, GET OFF ME!"

She was hitting him again. He had had enough.

He grabbed both her arms and roughly held them above her head.

"Shut up," he snarled. "Shut up and listen to me, or do you want to die?"

She kicked him in response. He wanted nothing more than to punch her.

Scratch the frightened animal part. She was a beast.

And she was screaming.

He held his hand in front of her mouth. Even if he wanted her to attract attention, for someone to kill her, and he would gladly take his death in account for the greater good, there were Remus and Sirius to think about. He didn't want them to be killed.

Or their ears to explode.

"Shut up," he told her. She sneered at him and tried to bite his hand.

His eyesight was flecked with red.

Someone pulled him off her, dragging him back. Two arms on each side. Sirius' face close to his.

"James," he asked lowly. "What the hell is going on?"

It was kind of ironic for James to be forced to sit at the fire to calm down. He was still sulking, and his arm had yet to stop bleeding.

At least the girl would talk to Remus, Sirius had pointed out.

Yeah, thought James. Applause to her.

Remus was a messenger now, telling them bits of information about her as he learned. It wasn't that much.

Her name was Lily.

And the only thing she could remember was her name.

Remus had concluded that the shock must have made her forget everything, or something like that.

James couldn't say he cared. So what if she had no memory?

Sirius sat down next to him.

"So what do we do with her now?" he asked.

"Give her a bit of food and see if she can make it on her own," James snapped. Sirius grinned.

"God, James, stop being such a pussy. Just because she bit you."

James' eye had begun to twitch, a pretty sure sign that he was furious. He avoided looking at Sirius.

"I want my jacket back."

"She needs it more. Be a gentleman."

"I don't care about what she needs, you hear me? Fuck her."

"Oh, I'm planning to. Come on Prongs, what harm can a girl do? If we remove all her teeth, so to speak."

James turned to Sirius then, a disbelieving look on his face.

"What _harm_? Are you kidding? We have no idea who this girl is, she could be one of _them_ and a spy or the daughter of some kind of count who will have our heads if we get too close to her, and she probably can't work. So, what harm can she not do?"

"So, we should just put her somewhere in the woods and watch her die."

"Gladly," James grumbled.

"Let's give her a chance." Remus had appeared out of nowhere. "But we should ask if she wants one."

"Moony! Aren't you on watch for a special feisty little girl?"

"She's asleep now." Remus flopped down next to James. "And as much as it _pains_ me to say this, because I know James is right, we should give her a chance."

"You know," James retorted, "I always felt like I should give putting a bullet through my brain a chance. I should do that now, too."

Remus sighed, Sirius snorted and James relented.

"Fine." He glanced over at the small figure next to the fire place. "But I really do want my jacket back."


	3. Chapter 3

_Author's Note: I know I haven't uploaded in forever, sorry. We had exam week and I have extreme anxiety, so I spent most of it rocking back and forth in the corner, crying my eyes out and going to my happy place._

 _But I'm back now, having failed most of them, and I'll be uploading more often, I swear._

 _I own nothing except dreams buried deep in my old Harry Potter books._

"No."

James turned his head to the right, not wanting her to see him rolling his eyes, before turning back and throwing his hands up into the air. Damn, this girl confused him.

"If you want to be part of this group, you carry your own weight."

"I am."

"I meant your goddamn pack, for God's sake."

"Well, I'm not doing that." This time, James didn't even try to hide his absolute annoyance. She should just wrap her stupid head around the fact that right now, this group was the best chance of survival she had.

"Then why don't we drop you off in the next town we walk through? If you're lucky, you'll even get into a good brothel, but I can't promise you any nice men."

"I'm not _property,_ jackass."

"I never said so, but these men will think so. It's your choice."

"It's _heavy._ "

"Grow a pair, princess. And stop slapping me!" James basically growled the last sentence at her, refusing the urge to hold the cheek she had slapped across again. The only good thing was the obvious pain she felt in her hand which one could only see by the slight discomfort that passed through her green eyes.

Man, if they left her at a brothel, the men would eat her alive. Or maybe they would all back off and her hand would hurt permanently.

"Where are we going anyway?"

"Next hanging tree, if I have a say in it," he murmured, but obviously, she was perfect enough to have 20/20 hearing. He only just dodged the slap.

"Coming, lovebirds?" Sirius grinned at James from where he was leaning against a tree. He had taken his pack off. Remus was fumbling with the remaining coals, hiding them as good as possible. It was best not to leave any kind of hint that they had been here.

"Pig."

"Oh, you've heard nothing, Lily flower." Somehow, Sirius felt the need to make a stupid comment. James pulled a face at him.

 _Really, mate? Isn't it enough that she wishes me death?_

 _Hey, she's hot,_ Sirius defended himself (at least James thought it was a 'she's hot' glare. He never had to think out of the box with Sirius.)

Remus glared back at them both and moved over to Lily, telling her something in a low voice. After a moment's hesitation, she nodded and picked up her pack.

"Oh hell no." James shook his head. "Why on earth does she listen to him?"

Sirius snickered. "You know James; the only thing I can't quite figure out is why we thought it was a good idea to send you in the first place. She fucking hates you, man."

James grumbled under his breath. It was a good argument, one that he himself had pointed out to Remus, but Remus told him that he and Lily had just started out on the wrong foot. Nothing that couldn't be fixed.

Well, Remus had been so wrong.

"We need to go," James said to Sirius. "At least if we want to make the next town by tomorrow. We're running out of food, and now we have another mouth to feed."

Sirius nodded and waved over to Remus who gave him a thumbs-up while helping Lily lift her pack onto her shoulders. She was clearly struggling under the weight.

Served her right.

James started walking down the hill they had camped on. Sirius jogged after him, but James was still faster, stomping down as hard as he could, wanting to get away from this stupid place.

"Mate, I know you hate the girl, but we're gonna lose Remus this way, too."

These words stopped him in his tracks. He knew Sirius was only messing with him, Remus could keep his pace, but being alone out here in these peaceful woods was positively deadly. Suddenly, he couldn't wait to reach some kind of town, somewhere where they could relax.

And look out for snatchers, of course, but snatchers weren't half as bad as what waited in these woods.

"Do we really still have enough food?"

Sirius had caught up to him by now and gave him a knowing look as an answer.

"Yeah, don't worry about it. Starvation is the least of our problems. If there's none left, we can just chew grass or something."

James nodded, absent-minded. A branch cracked in the distance, making him flinch. "We need to teach the girl how to shoot."

"What?" Sirius blinked. "Why? So she can shoot us all? Are you nuts?"

"Don't be an idiot, she would never shoot us all." Sirius gave him a look of disbelief, so James continued. "She would never do that to Remus. Also, it would be nice to have another person serve watch at night. When was the last time you slept through the night?"

"The day before yesterday."

"That doesn't count, you just fell asleep when it was your time to play look-out."

"Fair enough. And I'm still sorry because of that."

James sighed and stared back at the girl. She was leaning against a tree and panting. Obviously, she didn't have very much muscle, at least not enough to walk and carry a heavy pack. She would have to learn, it was part of everyday life with them.

"Let's just...I don't know. Get it over with. Find her a place and be done with it."

Remus had taken off his pack too and was now handing her a water bottle.

"Remus seems to like her." Sirius had joined him in his observation-from-afar.

"Remus wasn't bitten by her. _And_ he likes everyone who doesn't try to kill him within minutes of meeting him."

"True. I really wonder why he made friends with us."

A flash of sadness crossed Sirius' face. They both knew why Remus was here, with them.

James cleared his throat. Sirius had brought up a time he really didn't want to go back to.

"Let's get going. She can't rest forever."

"Well, actually – "

"Don't answer that, Sirius."


	4. Chapter 4

_Author's Note: Sorry, this one's much shorter. Next one will have more stuff happening, don't worry. I just had a bunch of medical issues. Anyway, here you go._

 _I own nothing. Literally nothing._

 _Recap: ...and James died._

 _(confused?_ _:)_ _Kiddin'. )_

A big, black wall. That's what it felt like.

Sometimes one could decipher figures through it, people she thought she recognized, but before she got a good look at them, they vanished into thin air and she couldn't describe, to save her life, what they had looked like.

It sucked.

Especially if, now that she had to build a whole bunch of new memories onto nothing, she was surrounded by idiots and complete jackasses.

Remus was fine. Sirius wasn't _that_ bad. But Potter? Hell no.

Actually, she had stopped referring to him as Potter. She preferred jackass.

Who did he think he was? Some almighty captain?

Okay, he was the leader of his group, but it wasn't like it was very big. Three people, big deal. And he treated all of them like property most of the time. She really had no idea why they were friends with him, or even stayed. She had only been with him for about a day and a half and she was already seriously considering taking dying in the woods as an option. He just...always wanted to control everything. The way any of them did anything. And Sirius and Remus were listening to him, yes, but she wasn't and he couldn't handle the simple fact of one person disobeying him. What was wrong with her for having her own opinions?

She might not be able to base them on actual facts because they had all left her brain for some reason, but that didn't mean she didn't know what she was talking about.

God, he was probably just a sexist. And a pervert. And possibly wanting to sell her as a whore.

She needed to get away from him. She needed to break through the wall in her head.

Soon. Maybe.

Let's be real, she had zero chance of surviving on her own. She probably would fall over into some kind of stream five seconds on and drown in a gruesome way.

Well, those were two very fantastic options.

It wasn't that big of a problem to stay with the group. Ignoring the jackass, Remus and even Sirius weren't that bad.

The biggest issue she had with the whole situation was the simple fact that she was limited to what she knew now.

She knew she must have been someone beyond the wall in her head, but she couldn't see anything. There might have been, no, there probably had been other options on what she could do with her life.

She would likely never know, instead being stuck with her stupid, tiny options on being a whore to several people or being a whore to jackass Potter.

And it was then that one of the most terrible thoughts struck her.

Potter was a man who took what he wanted and didn't hand out charity.

What did he want from her for staying in his group? Her innocence? Would anyone care if he took it?

She shivered with fear at the thought. This morning, she had slapped him, just to try and make him see that she could defend herself and he shouldn't try anything, but she also knew that he was stronger. He had pressed her to the ground that first night, cutting her off from the air. Who knows what he would have done if it hadn't been for Remus and Sirius waking up.

 _Remus and Sirius._ The people who listened to him and trusted him unconditionally.

Oh God.


End file.
